The best new singles this week
The week’s best singles – it’s as simple as that
SINGLE OF THE WEEK
Fred P – States Of Bliss Part 2 (Private Society)
Fred P is a man on a musical mission. The Berlin-based artist is by now a seasoned veteran of the deep house underground, his years spent diligently refining his sound fuelled by an unshakeable desire to spread light and love through music. The latest material to arrive from his Private Society imprint is the second chapter of his two-part ‘States Of Bliss’ album, a collection composed with the focused intention of eliciting positive sensations in the hearts and minds of the listener. As with much of his work, this noble motive is there for all to hear, with each beautifully crafted track proving powerfully immersive and eminently fit for purpose. Though never before released, some of the tracks were recorded many years ago, never quite fitting into previous releases but now presented alongside complimentary new compositions whose narrative they connect with.
One such archive cut is ‘Part 2’ opener, ‘NY’, a dreamy blend of celestial pads and shuffling jazz breaks that he recorded in a hotel room in Hell’s Kitchen. Deeply immersive as the mesmerising swells undulate over cascading drums, the music drifts neatly into the no-less captivating ‘Awakening Desire’, where dramatic sweeps and distant harmonies glide over understated drums and implied rhythms. If these tracks were designed for at-home introspection and moments away from the dancefloor, there can be no doubting the favoured listening space of the closing number, ‘High Fusion’. Here, we find Fred in the form of his life, as elevated chords soar over fluid double bass and gloriously energetic percussion. A majestic piece of music that caps a masterful collection, it’s arguably the standout from both instalments and is at the very least certain to ring out across clubs and evolving skies for years to come. Dazzling music here from a genuinely brilliant artist and, perhaps more importantly, a profoundly beautiful soul.
PC
Lurka – Powers (Make Your Own Meaning)
If you caught wind of the minimal house leaning on Facta’s recent drop for Lurka’s Fringe White label, then it might not be as much of a shock to hear this new drop from the Bristol bass weight spectrum. Lurka’s hinted at his love of stripped back 4/4 in the past (check his Crack mix if you need further proof) and now he doubles down with a new label and four tracks which make no bones about aiming straight at the up-all-night shuffling crowd.
Minimal is at its best when approached from a different angle, and that rings true on this 12”, which absolutely holds true to the template of minimal while offering the kinks and variations that make for stand-out tracks in a soundalike genre. ‘Powers’ aims at the cheeky end of things, using pockmarked percussion to crate a playful energy while packing plenty of expression into the subs to charge up the all-important groove. It’s not some wild deviation from the formula, but rather a sharp and focused rendition which could easily work the magic well into the morning at Sunwaves.
‘Re Speak’ aims for something knottier, twisting up the drums for the kind of tripped-out tool which could well be worming its way into a Villalobos set near you. Things get a little spicier with ‘String’, thanks to the titular strikes which bring a little UK flavour into the springy beat, slyly nodding to garage in the swing in the process and getting creative with the sound design to appeal to the freakier DJs. ‘Mystick Crystal’ strips things right back without eschewing the formal structure, working with modulation and flamboyant FX tweaking to test the head in a manner more aligned with his work on Timedance et al. If you crave a little more imagination in your minimal, this is exactly the kind of record you need in your life.
OW
Space Dimension Controller – Neuclidea (Running Back)
It’s hard to think of too many active artists who manifest retro-futurist soundscapes more successfully than Jack Hamill, better known as Space Dimension Controller. The British producer manages to imbue his music with a supremely authentic synth-funk flex without ever veering into pastiche, his forward-facing rhythms propelling dexterous keys and thick bass lines via tracks that sound entirely a la mode. While there are plenty of producers and collectives staying respectfully true to a strictly bygone aesthetic, SDC is arguably doing more than most to push the sound forward. His releases on the likes of Clone, R&S, Ninja Tune and Dekmantel have been anything but static, and while funk-flecked refrains are certainly a trade mark, they’re by no means the sum total of his creative toolbox. Drifting through IDM, ambient and throbbing techno, his music maintains a recognisable core combined with equal measures of originality and unpredictability.
His latest release marks a debut on Gerd Janson’s Running Back, featuring four varied jams demonstrating Hamill’s production luminosity in all its glory. The ‘Neuclidea’ title track leans into the techno end of his repertoire, with glitchy rhythms powering over sturdy drums as coloured synth textures echo into the cosmos. ‘Life Window’ follows a similar trajectory, with agile synth melodies interwoven over hard-hitting machine drums and subaquatic bass. On the flip, more jacking still is ‘Sunset Operator’, with pounding kick and crisp synth snares driving through harmonic waves as grainy synths dart around the rhythmic orbit. Finally, Hodge rides in with a remix of the title track, layering the melodics over rolling snare breaks as a thumping kick solidifies the groove. Club-focused and sure to evoke gyration across raved-up floors, each track lands harder than the last. This is more fine work from SDC, pitching incendiary rhythms against celestial musicality with an aptitude that escapes all but the most distinguished of sonic architects.
PC
Spiral Tribe – Forward The Revolution (SP 23)
There has been a resurgent interest in the music from the near-mythical Spiral Tribe collective, what with Berlin crew Sound Metaphors dedicating a new reissue series to some of the free party pioneers’ catalogue. In doing so, the storied tales of police-baiting party antics have been matched by the actual sound they were pushing, which is more nuanced than the nosebleed nihilism many might have assumed they put out. The Spirals have chosen to reissue this seminal first record themselves, and it’s more than deserving of a fresh appraisal.
Originally arriving in 1992, this record arrived at a changeable time for UK rave music, as breakbeat hardcore was finding its feet but well before jungle was running off in its own syncopated direction. The title track holds a looming influence over this release, capturing a subtle mood which flies in the face of free party extremism, and that’s thanks in no small part to the spooky yet spiritual pad tone looming behind the 4/4 breaks thrust of the track, scattershot vocal samples and MC flex from Scallywag and Sim Simmer. It’s eerie and otherworldly more than it is banging, although of course it can still do the damage in no uncertain terms.
‘World Traveller Adventurer’ has a minimal demeanour which some might find surprising too, even if the tempo is up and there’s a generous dose of hardcore’s playful spirit worked into the sound palette. Even on ‘Ragga Boom’ with its weirdnik throat singing sample has a certain disassociated quality which feels all at sea, communicating a party energy shrouded in darkness without ever feeling inhuman. The raw patchwork quality of ‘Track 13 (Criminal Drug)’ completes the picture as best it can, moving with a madcap approach that champions disorientation over militant functionality. It’s experimental to match the legacy of the free party movement Spiral Tribe helped spearhead, but with more intrigue and depth than the collective perhaps get credit for.
OW
N9OC – Memory Allocator (Die Orakel)
Frankfurt musician N9OC is a new one on us, but the presence of fresh talent is made immediately clear by the quality of her latest release ‘Memory Allocator’, the latest for Die Orakel. While this is her first release on vinyl, past releases have come to various local outlets in digital formats, cementing the future-facing nature of her music.
This EP is subtextually inspired by AI and its capacity to organize musical data into quick and efficient ‘groups’ (libraries). While its bio text speaks of niche concepts like lookup-libraries and chord-codes, it’s not hard to work out what these might be when whacking this slab onto the decks. The melodic focus is obvious from the jump, with ‘Entity’ sounding almost as if a neural network were hard at work scanning a seemingly endless list of arpeggiatable variations.
That’s not to mention its slow, awestruck aura – a mood brought out further by high-endy sci-fi snares and synaptic toppers. Even a juddery post-grime curveball is thrown on ‘Inverted Refractions’. Meanwhile, its ambient cuts, such as ‘U’ and ‘Q’, are probably enough to give us technologically-induced Stendhal syndrome, leaving the listener awestruck at the generative capacities of AI and the oncoming, unstoppable tide of the Bostromian singularity (whether or not N9OC actually used AI in making this EP is besides the point). Airier bangers like ‘Explorer 2.0’ add to the mood of wonder, reminiscent of the production styles of Spekki Webbu or Scape One.
JIJ
Yushh – Look Mum No Hands (Wisdom Teeth)
Having founded the Pressure Dome label and built up her own presence within the Bristol bassweight club music scene, Yushh’s first outright release has been some time coming. Jen Hartley has been scattering tracks around for a few years now, on the likes of Banoffee Pies, Rhythm Section and Awkwardly Social, so along with her consistent DJ presence people should have some idea of what to expect, but even still it’s a voyage of discovery as we swerve into a fully-fledged four track drop for the always-reliable Wisdom Teeth.
Choosing to come through with this EP for Fact and K-Lone’s label rather than putting it out herself helps adjust the focus on the music, and there’s plenty of appropriately Wisdom-ready atmospherics and acutely angled beats to absorb, but importantly Hartley sounds assured in her own production style. There’s a strident soundsystem weight to the title track which calls back to the primal bass drops of the hardcore-derived music which has come before, but in the densely detailed percussion and ecological flourishes of the sonic movement, there’s a modernist finish which brings the music bang up to date. From the sprightly synth wriggles and warm chords of bashy house-tooled ‘Same Same’ to the angular futurism of ‘Close Fall’, the Yushh sound shimmers and gleams with invention while absolutely capturing the current bass music moment at its most engaging.
OW
Bosq/Kaleta – Ipade (Bacalao)
Bosq and Kaleta continue their fruitful creative partnership with another magnetic set of Afro disco jams, serving four propulsive grooves on the ‘Ipade EP’. Bostonian-in-Medellin Ben ‘Bosq’ Woods certainly deserves respect and admiration for the musical path he’s journeyed. From sample-based tracks steeped in hip-hop roots, into edits, disco and house, he’s continued to raise the bar for himself as he strives to strike a balance between authenticity and production finesse. Incorporating live instruments while collaborating with an evolving cast of talented players, it would be easy to assume much of his recent output was reclaimed treasure from the vaults. Leon Ligan-Majek, better known as Kaleta, brings plenty to the table himself, of course.
The Beninois singer and guitarist’s gorgeously textured vocals and call-and-response melodies blend effortlessly with Bosq’s heavy rhythm tracks, with the new EP serving as a case in point. The spirited tempo and charmed vocals of the title track are powerfully alluring, with stirring horns and spacey synths combined over limber percussion. Arguably even better are the mesmerising textures of ‘Ariya Tide’, with hypnotic percussion caressing harmonic motifs as they mystically entwine. Both tracks appear in instrumental versions, the enlivening orchestration performing magnificently with or without the vocal leads.
PC
While she’s not readily associated with the Bristol dubstep scene, that was where Berlin-based Emika first found herself before heading on her own idiosyncratic path into experimental club music, neo-classical composition and more besides. On this return to the dance 12” format, you can absolutely hear that sensibility coming through, even if ‘Breath Cuts’ still sports plenty of lean and mean Germanic techno structure to latch onto. In the stark minimalism and insistent bass throb, you’re only a few BPMs and a broken kick away from dubstep, albeit carried to somewhere entirely her own thanks to the artful layering of the titular respiratory samples.
The accompanying ‘Other Worldly Mix’ is classic functionalism in its strong similarity to the ‘Original Mix’, but here Emika allows a little touch of her orchestral chops into the mid-section and weaves more of her own voice into the mix for a trippier, more captivating end result. Norman Nodge cements the Berlin dimension of the release with two mixes on the flip which ratchet down the component parts to a sturdy framework for the club, delivering something reliable if not exactly shocking to the ears, with a simple removal of the kick drum for his own alternative version with Emika’s added thoughts on imagination. It’s understated, but in the era of studio shock and awe, there’s a lot to be said for that approach.
OW
Minimono – Half Way Through (Bosconi)
Fabio Della Torre and Ennio Colaci’s Minimono project has always been a fluid concern, starting out in a purer kind of minimal before evolving into the realm of disco-fuelled house and now landing in a flexible field of electro and techno which leans in on the genres funk roots. The 2021 EP ‘Binary Pocket’ hinted at this idea with some deft broken beat excursions, but the idea comes through in dazzling fashion on this new four-tracker, leading in with the squelching machine funk of ‘Accelerate’. This is a rich, full-fat production teeming with detail and yet absolutely aligned with the sound of Detroit techno as a by-product of The Electrifying Mojo’s radio polemics. The low end clearly chewed on the same fruit as Parliament, punching into the red like the best Shake Shakir productions and with the melodic flair of classic Larkin, but it’s also shaking with its own strong identity.
It’s easy to be reminded of Dan Curtin’s mutant boogie too, and that’s no bad thing when so much techno has turned towards a schranz-y kind of misery no one needs in their lives. ‘Overflow’ bounces with an almost cartoony kind of freakiness and ‘Discorruption’ gets artful with bleepy, acidic Atkins hooks, while ‘Gettin’ Gold’ hits a lean, punchy note filled with razor-sharp zaps, starry-eyed synth darts and a deadly bassline. It’s stupidly fun, but it’s also smart as hell, and quite possible the best thing Minimono have put out to date.
OW
Autarkic – New Age Swag (Mule Musiq)
Tel Aviv’s Nadav Spiegel makes his Mule Musiq debut with a typically off-kilter set of productions, donning his Autarkic moniker on the ‘New Age Swag’ EP. Nadav has released music on some of the underground’s most revered labels, with past efforts arriving on Golf Channel, Bahnsteig 23, and Disco Halal among others. With an off-world aesthetic and a knack for constructing richly transportive soundscapes, his music is always engaging and stylistically liquid. Tokyo’s ever-alluring Mule Musiq maintains an awe-inspiring quality threshold, so it’s no surprise to learn that the EP is packed full of musical wonder. Opening track ‘Cymbals Power Rush’ is a wonderfully aberrant take on future rave, with wonky stabs and fluid synth leads levitating through misty pads over pulsing drums.
The arrangement evolves as the rhythm takes control, morphing into a throbbing techno roller for a floor-focused reprise. The scattered drums and evocative melodies of ‘A Petition For Grace’ provide a bittersweet moment, with atmospheric harmonies gliding across a sparse landscape as the textures evolve and entwine. The jarring synths and luscious strings of the title track combine for an immersive listening experience as they unfurl over stripped drums, before closing track ‘Breeder’ ups the tempo, with broken drums powering oddball synth textures into an intoxicating late-night fervour.
PC
This week’s reviewers: Patrizio Cavaliere, Jude Iago James, Oli Warwick.